Solid wastes from industrial activities have emerged as a major environmental hazard in the State. Minerals-based industries are generating a large quantity of solid wastes, the major ones being fly ash from thermal power plants, red mud from alumina refinery, slag from iron and steel and ferro alloys plants, charcoal from sponge iron plants and gypsum from phosphoric fertiliser plants.
The industrial units have been producing 25 million tonne of solid wastes in the State per annum. The thermal power plants, sponge iron, steel and fertiliser units are the sources of the hazardous solid wastes. Sources said the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is the leading company in this regard. Its Kaniha and Talcher projects are ahead of other any other units in the matter of pollution activities, ironically though NTPC is a Central public sector undertaking. Nandira, a small tributary of the river Brahami, is choked with industrial wastes at Talcher.
The districts of Angul, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Jagatsinghpur are facing the brunt of the hazardous solid wastes, but the authorities hardly take the problem seriously. The polluting industries have been defying the recommendations of the Ministry of Environment and Forest. Utterly careless as they are, not a single exemplary action has been taken against them so far.
To get rid of the pernicious effect of pollution, some recommendations have been given by the Ministry, called as Corporate Responsibilities for Environment Protection (CREP). Besides the solid wastes problem, air pollution is another crisis in the industrially developed districts of Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Angul, Keonjhar and Jagatsinghpur. The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has directed all sponge iron plants to install high-efficiency Electro Static Precipitator (ESP) or any other effective air pollution control system. To avoid heavy charges of electric consumption, industries are turning a deaf ear to the direction of SPCB. As a result, villages of the nearby areas are bearing the brunt of the malady. Neither the SPCB nor the district Collectors give the minimum emphasis on curbing the air pollution though they are the competent authorities in this regard.
The thermal power plants have been directed by SPCB to earmark adequate space so that flue gas desulfurisation plants can be established in case the ground level concentration of sulphur-di-oxide comes close to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). Currently, all the future thermal power plants are being directed to install high-efficiency air pollution control equipment so that the emission particulate matter conforms to 100mg/Nm3 against the national standard of 150mg/Nm3.
The older cement plants, which have been operating with wet process, are yet to be converted to less polluting type dry processes. Some cement factories have installed high-efficiency ESPs, but many are yet to install the stricter standard of 100mg/Nm3. In the fertiliser sector, for gaseous pollution control both the fertiliser plants at Paradeep have installed alkali scrubbers in their sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid units. Both have installed online monitoring facility to continuously monitor the SO2 emission from the sulphuric acid plants. That is why Paradeep is facing less pollution problems in comparison to other industrial areas.
